Music Review: Guns N Roses – Not In This Lifetime, Or Cultural Currency Rekindled

By BRUCE DENNILL

Guns N Roses are a tough proposition when it comes to managing expectations. Mention the band’s name, and most music fans speak of their love for the guitar playing of Slash, who left GNR in 1996 and only rejoined in 2016; or the bass work of Duff McKagan, who quit in 1997 and came back in 2016. Ask anyone to name the band’s hits and for the most part, they’ll mention tracks – Sweet Child O’ Mine, Welcome To The Jungle, Paradise City, November Rain, Civil War, Live & Let Die and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – all released between 1987 and 1991.

Plenty has happened since, but this is an act that has, for more or less three decades, existed in a robust nostalgia bubble that no number of member changes (singer Axl Rose is the only member who has featured in every line-up) or controversies could pop, and that established vision of the band would likely have been what…

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